Thoughts on Money

The world is split between those who don't know how to start making money and those who don't know when to stop.

Security is fundamentally about being able to hold and stay in the tension of uncertainty without compulsively resolving it or dispelling it.

This is the kind of work we do as financial advisors. We help clients lean into the tension between money and meaning. It’s not about quick answers! It’s about living with the questions long enough to align their money with what truly matters.

Time matters. So much of the rat race that squeezes your free time means you have to spend loads of money on convenience purchases (woke up too late for the bus, had to take an Uber; no time to make dinner from scratch; etc) but even more importantly, if you do not have ample free time, you cannot learn how to be satisfied.

Small Planet Institute co-founder Anna Lappé once said:

“Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.”

“conventional budgeting methods rely on restriction, discipline, and perfectionism in a way that doesn’t work for people. They ignore an important truth about money: it’s meant to be spent.”

But here’s the key: Money work isn’t about getting rid of our uncomfortable emotions. It’s about learning to respond to them, to work with them, and to learn from them.

And most importantly, to not let them steer you in directions that will make life harder for you.

We need to remember that the market is not the economy, and the economy is not the market. And the economy makes me very worried about food banks. Children are hungry, people are hungry. And when kids can’t eat they can’t pay attention in school, and if they can’t pay attention in school they can’t be good students; they can’t move forward in the... See more